The United States had contemplated the issue of biological warfare even before it entered World War II. In the fall of 1941, Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote, Because of the dangers that might confront this country from potential enemies employing what might be broadly described as biological warfare, it seems advisable that investigations be initiated to survey the present situation and the future possibilities. Britain was already at war, and authorities there feared that Nazi Germany would place deadly organisms in the V-1 buzz bombs that were raining down on that country. (The full extent of Japan’s biowarfare program, which involved widespread testing on human subjects, did not come to light until after the war.) Spurred on by their fears of Nazi biological attacks, the British launched their own biowarfare program. On the Scottish island of Gruinard, British scientists did such extensive testing of anthrax that the entire island was declared off-limits to the public for decades afterward. But despite its head start, Britain was unable to create the massive quantities of biological agents it wanted.

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Once the United States entered the war, Stimson was ready to move forward. There is but one logical course to pursue, he wrote, namely, to study the possibilities of such warfare from every angle, make every preparation for reducing its effectiveness, and thereby reduce the likelihood of its use. With President Franklin Roosevelt’s authorization, Stimson established a highly secret civilian agency to coordinate government and private efforts for a biological warfare program. The new entity, called the War Research Service, operated under the Federal Security Agency, a New Deal agency within the Department of Agriculture. George W. Merck, the president of Merck Pharmaceutical Company, became its director. In that role, on December 10, 1942, he requested the Chemical Warfare Service to develop the program.

Things moved quickly. By December 21, Baldwin arrived at his new assignment at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, the focal point of the country’s chemical warfare research. He had much to do. First he had to select a suitable site for making deadly bio-organisms, a place that was close to Washington but not too close. Baldwin chose Detrick Field, an abandoned 92-acre airfield outside Frederick, Md., about 50 miles northwest of Washington, that had been used by the Maryland National Guard. The Chemical Warfare Service took possession of the airfield, and Detrick Field became Camp Detrick (and later Fort Detrick).

Baldwin also had to recruit staff, and he drafted some of his University of Wisconsin faculty colleagues and students. If I said, `I want that man,’ unless the Manhattan Project said they needed him, I got him, he declared.

Most of the individuals serving at Camp Detrick were military personnel, and many of the scientists became commissioned officers. Baldwin was a World War I veteran, but he opted to remain a civilian in WWII. He explained, I used to say that as long as I wore a red necktie I could say no to anybody, but as soon as I put on a uniform, whether it was as a colonel or general or something else, there was always somebody up above that you had to say, `Yes, sir,’ to. On the other hand, he added: While I could say no to anybody else, as a civilian I couldn’t command people under me in the same way that the military could. Still, in a research assignment I never felt that you could accomplish very much by commanding people anyways. Unless you can convince them that what you want done is useful, and this is a suitable main procedure, research people don’t accomplish very much.

The staff had an immediate order to fill: Britain had requested seven pounds of dried botulinum toxin. When testing anthrax, the British had used 13-gallon stainless steel milk cans to produce small quantities. The Camp Detrick personnel used a similar production method to fill the British order for botulinum, but on a larger scale. First they erected a temporary tar paper–covered shack dubbed Black Maria. It was a first attempt at creating the kind of containment facility that would keep the deadly product from killing its makers or escaping into the environment. The Americans tried to incorporate some of the British techniques, using four 100-gallon reactor tanks connected by piping and valves. Hot steam disinfected the equipment to keep it free of unwanted organisms. The scientists grew the bacteria in a culture media of an extract of pressed corn kernels. It took only two days for bacteria in the tanks to multiply and produce the deadly toxin. Personnel worked around the clock to fill the order. When it was completed, the staff destroyed Black Maria so they could replace it with plants with a larger capacity.

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